Land of Pollution: Yomi No Kuni
by Uzzle Cue
Summary: Sakura has faced a plethora of oddities during the war. The resurrection of the dead, hordes of monsters, and the appearance of a rabbit eared woman intent on the genocide of ninja. Then suddenly she and Obito Uchiha, former madman extraordinaire, are in a whole new world - or maybe dimension, she isn't sure - filled with Heroes and Gods and a government agency called S.H.I.E.L.D.
1. Chapter 1

Warnings for Spoilers of Everything. I'll be doing a lot of interconnected referencing to lots of different series. Avengers, Thor, Naruto, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Probably others, who knows.

Anyways - this is my foray into both a multi-chapter story and a crossover.

So, real quick before we begin and if you would be so kind as to give me a moment of your time. I want to say that this story was inspired by **Girl-Chama**'s **Shortcutting Redemption**. It is by far the best Naruto/Avenger's crossover I have read on this site and - crossover status aside - it's a really fantastic read. With a solid and engaging writing style the story is an intriguing study into the interaction between characters and cultures. I highly recommend that if you haven't read it yet you should leave right now and go school yourself.

Even if that means not reading this first.

However, when you come back, please enjoy.

(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)

Sakura abruptly pulled back the chakra from her _Strength of a Hundred_ seal, the black marks recoiling rapidly from around Obito's limbs. Ducking around the man she grabbed him just under his arms and kicked off as hard as she could, vaulting them up towards higher ground.

She was not fast enough to entirely escape the torrent of acid being unleashed from the portal.

_Some acids can eat through flesh within seconds. It can take less than a minute to burn past fat, muscle, and even bone if left untreated or treated incorrectly. _

They landed badly, hitting the ground and rolling, grit biting into her already injured arm.

_The wound is contaminated._

Sakura struggled to her feet and tore off her vest, kicking it away. Her nails sunk into the seam of her right sleeve and ripped the fabric free, shucking it to the side.

_Assess the wound. What damage is already done?_

Her entire body convulsed, limbs jerking as if she was fighting off a puppet jutsu. Sakura curled around her arm, reluctant to touch it but unable to not give in to the instinct to protect the area. The flesh was damaged from her wrist up her forearm and across part of her bicep too, spattered in a pattern like paint might be flicked from a brush. As the tattoo like marks retreated to the rhombus on her forehead she was still granted the hyper awareness lent to her body through the technique, she could feel the skin breaking down on the cellular level. _Screaming at her._

"Are you okay?"

"_Water..._I need water!" her voice was high, panicked.

Obito didn't have a flask on him, but he crouched down and slammed two fingers into the dirt. The ground hardened into smooth rock and dipped into a bowl like shape . He performed another unknown technique and the basin filled with clear water. Sakura fell to her knees heavily, caps cracking, and splashed at her arm, again and again and again.

She had been punched by arguably the strongest woman in the world during her training, impaled by a poisonous sword, and had the unfortunate memory of Naruto losing control and ripping his claws through her. Acid was still an entirely new world of agony. Her eyes shuttered closed, refusing the escape of any tears as she blindly treated herself.

_If it eats too far into the bone it can be fatal later on even with proper treatment._

The water wasn't meant to soothe. Each new handful irritated her already raw nerves as it rinsed away contaminants. She felt her stomach roil from the pain and she figured it was a good thing she hadn't eaten anything besides soldier pills in the past two days. She chanced another assessment, eyes wide, and she just managed to strangle an angry sob before it could be born. Her arm looked like it better belonged to an anatomical dummy.

_I can't heal it with chakra now. I don't have enough to spare for full treatment. A patch job will scar it wrong and I'll lose full range of movement. The chakra root seems fine though, if I can bear the pain and wait until I can get treatment from someone else then I can -_

"Are you okay?" Obito asked again.

Sakura didn't dare look up. She clenched her eyes shut for a long moment and worked at picking the lock on her jaw.

"...Yeah. I'm - I'm okay...This is nothing." Her voice trembled, but she hoped she came across as sincere even if she was panting with every breath.

"You're a medical ninja, right?" He murmured. "...Let's wait till your wounds have healed." He shifted away from her, still crouching, to give her space and privacy. A particularly kind gesture from what had been a man attempting world domination in the not too distant past.

She had experienced some terrible and amazing things since the war had started. The resurrection of the dead, both enemy and ally. The disparate factions of several hidden villages and the samurai nation, once caught in age old rivalries and bitter feuds, coming together to form a united front. The tragic deaths of friends and comrades. Hordes of monstrous clones. Demons made of chakra. A rabbit eared moon goddess intent on wiping the world clean and starting it anew.

Sakura found it easy to ignore, if not forgive, Obito Uchiha's many sins and partner with him when the current situation was compared to her spectrum of bizarre experiences. As nice as the thought of rest was, she couldn't forget Naruto and Kakashi, still fighting in every moment that she hesitated.

_We can't afford to rest. We have to find Sasuke. Naruto needs Sasuke. The world needs them both. We can't beat her without both of them. We need to keep going!_

Sakura clutched her wrist and focused inward, she directed her chakra and carefully began deadening nerves, one by one. She distracted herself from the anguish of death creeping across her arm by scanning the area, grasping for bearings that wouldn't apply to this new dimension. From the vantage point of her new perch, she could make out more of the surrounding landscape. There were mountainous formations, made from curdled red stone, as far as she could see in every directions. This was an empty place filled with silence and the stench of sulfur.

_I can't numb all the nerves. Something could go wrong and I wouldn't feel it. I can't turn off the circulation either if I'm going to use chakra...I'll have to grin and bear the rest of it._

The portal Obito sustained was closed, spinning hypnotically a dozen feet from them. The ground beneath it still giving off clouds of noxious gas. Obito was huffing softly where he slumped not far from her, the muted gasp of an animal resigned to death. His hair and skin had been bleached white, since the time he had housed the Ten-Tailed conglomeration. The only pigment he had was from his eyes and the blood that spilled like tears down his cheeks. He looked like a ghost with one foot already in the afterlife.

_I don't think he'll last much longer the way he is. We have to hurry. Naruto is waiting. _

Sakura reached out and clutched a damp hand around Obito's shoulder, pretending to herself that she wasn't also using the opportunity to lean against him in her exhaustion. She flushed chakra through his shoulder, easing the aches he was feeling and revitalizing his blood with oxygen. It was a simple technique, used mostly to help the elderly and asthmatics, that eased his inhalations and hopefully revitalized him enough to continue. She felt dizzy as she retracted the energy. Too sapped from what little chakra she had been forced to expend without the benefit of her seal.

_I need him to hold on. He has to survive until we get Sasuke back. After that... he can die._

"It's okay," she said, her voice insistent in between barely controlled gasps. "...We can't waste the chance we got from Naruto."

Obito was tense beneath her fingertips, "Why don't you heal your own wounds?"

"...My chakra has a limit," Sakura said, smirking dryly. "Let's keep going."

This man, Kakashi's teammate, looked up at her from the corner of his eye like he _knew _her, knew everything about her. Maybe not the superficial things, like her favorite food or the name of her childhood pet, but her _core_ he understood.

"...you feel like you want to help him..." his mouth tugged just a little against the scars that whirled across half his face. She wasn't sure which 'he' Obito was talking about, it could have applied to a number of her precious people.

_I would do anything to help them. They're my teammates, my comrades, my family._

"I see," he said, almost a sigh. Sakura wasn't sure if he was reading her mind with his cursed eyes or if the _Strength of a Hundred_ seal, seeping from her skin to his, connected them in more ways than one, but he seemed to understand her intent and unwavering dedication. _They had to do this_. Sakura felt flush with the knowledge that this man was willing to die to save the world he'd once been so bent on ruling, that this act was his apology to his own teammates for his actions, the only thing he could do. She felt infected by the thought that she too would give up her life for the ultimate outcome.

"Yeah," he was smiling now, boyish almost, similar to the rare smiles Sasuke had granted Team seven in his youth. "_Let's do this_."

"_Alright!_" Sakura lifted her injured arm and pressed her palm into his other shoulder, rooting herself firmly and anchoring him to the ground.

Her task was to maintain the floodgate, keep the seal holding back her three years of chakra wide open. Obito drew the chakra out and controlled it himself, as if their networks were one and the same. His control wasn't as fine as hers and she had to help hone the transition between them. It was more of a mental exercise than anything else, an internal urging.

The portal flickered and reappeared before them, twisting open. The energy rushing out of her grew more demanding, the portal to this further dimension requiring more to remain open. Great dunes filled the circular window and hot gold sand began to pour free like an hourglass. In the very far distance there was a solitary figure, the one darkness in a barren land of sunlight.

"It's this one!" Obito shouted.

"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed at the same time, louder than him. "Over here! _Hurry_!"

Sasuke turned towards her voice, already running.

Sakura didn't need to see the portal beginning to shrink, she could feel the tide of her chakra ebbing under the strain to connect the two far reaching dimensions. Obito was bolstering the window with as much of his own chakra as he could, but he'd been mostly tapped from the last dimension they had investigated.

"...this is bad..." Obito choked out, portal whirling smaller and smaller, wavering insubstantially.

As fast as Sasuke was, Sakura knew with terrible clarity that they weren't going to be able to hold out, that he wasn't going to make it. Closing her eyes she dug deep into her seal, following the pathway down into the core of her chakra system, the sea of her chakra. She wasn't a Hyuga, but she could almost envision the overwhelming nothingness where her energy had been. Three years of scrimping and saving, gone. She felt like her insides could echo.

_If I can just get Sasuke to this dimension Kakashi can bridge the final gap. We just have to keep it open. Just. For. One. More. Minute._

She dug into the emptiness within her chest, scraping and praying to find anything that might keep the portal open, any hidden pocket or missing vein.

_Anything! Please! Anything!_

And then there was _something. _

What she found was not chakra. This energy filled her mouth with the taste of salt. Life force.

The energy was _thicker_ than chakra, it wound out of her slowly, reluctant to leave her body. She pushed and pulled, bullying the power through the seal even as her body began to break down around her. Obito jolted at the addition of power, wrestling it into some usable form.

"_Sakura_..." the marks they shared glowed harsh and bright as the portal dilated sharply, not meant to be held open by such means. It crackled at the edges, swelling out of Obito's control. He struggled to hold the door open as the technique mutated before them, almost with a life of its own.

"..._keep going._.." she ordered as previously healed wounds began to reappear across her body, phantoms from the past come to haunt her once more. She could feel the vitality leaching from her bones and she imagined that it must be what aging was like in rapid time.

Pain lanced through her stomach and deep cut scored across her cheek - _Chiyo, is this what you felt when you brought back Gaara?__ -_ and bruises clouded her skin - _Tsunade really did know how to throw a punch - _blood ran in rivulets from her remaining sleeve - _Naruto didn't mean to hurt me, he wasn't in control. I forgave him. I'll always forgive him -_

"...just hold on..."

Sasuke was a hundred yards away when he vanished and appeared on their side of the rip in space, having substituted himself for Sakura's soiled vest. Obito jerked around, breaking their connection through the seal even before Sasuke had landed on his feet. Sakura fell forward limply, eyes rolling around without control. She was blinded by the light and deafened by the sound of the portal humming at unbearable volumes, screeching almost.

Obito caught her around the ribs before she could collapse fully. Sakura, jarred into consciousness, hooked her chin over his shoulder and stared at the portal in dread. The door had taken on an asymmetric shape, jagged at the edges, and it had grown four times its original size, the bottom half vanishing into the ground. Inside the portal the dimensions switched rapidly, cycling through more and more worlds. Worlds not within the rabbit woman's control.

Oceans full of ancient beasts. Deserts of purple sand. A city of gold and glass. Volcanoes spitting fire upon a ash filled wasteland. Endless fields of stars and an all consuming emptiness.

The portal folded, curling inward upon itself as if it had weight or substance, a slow falling giant.

Sakura reacted instantly, pushing forward and up. She slammed Obito to the ground, kicking one leg back. Her foot caught Sasuke square in the chest and he went flying, not expecting her explosive action. He crashed with little grace into the next mountain over.

_Safe. You're safe. You and Naruto are going to be safe._

Sasuke was shouting something she couldn't make out and running towards her and reaching for her.

_This is the first time Sasuke has ever held out his hand to me. I guess I was finally useful to him._

Sakura wasn't sure she was smiling, but she clutched at the sense of accomplishment, even as the terror of approaching death washed over her.

_Maybe this means I saved the world too, in my own way._

The portal roared down like a wave, swallowing Sakura, Obito, and half a mountain as it disappeared.

* * *

><p>"We're calling it a meteorite, for the time being." He fiddled with his cuff links. They were collectors items. Little red, white, and blue shields with a star at each center.<p>

"...Is anyone actually going to believe that?" Her voice was dry but didn't reveal any obvious humor.

"I said '_for the time being_'."

"It's your job to make them believe it." A sharp voice cut into the conversation.

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir. Sorry sir."

Initial investigation says that there were two people found on top of the... _meteorite._ They weren't recognized by any of the natives." A screen flickered to life, green text scrolling mid air. "We haven't gotten visuals yet, but it says they found a teenage girl and a man. They were taken to a hospital near the Botswana reserve. Nine hundred clicks Northwest of Johannesburg."

"If they have something to do with the thousand ton stone that dropped out of the sky we should bring them in."

"Who should we send, sir?"

"I think Agent May as lead with a four man squad would be adequate for recon."

"The Cavalry? _Huh_. You look like you want to say something, Agent Hill?"

"Nothing, sir. She's certainly skilled enough to handle it."

"...Alright. Put the team together." a beleaguered sigh sliced through the room, " I want constant contact though. I've got a bad feeling about these two. The last time something dropped out of the sky it was a hammer and we all know how that turned out. Don't we, Coulson?"

"Yes, sir."


	2. Chapter 2

So - second chapter - cool beans.

I thought while I have a moment I'd say that if you're looking for some good crossover stories you might want to check out _Remnants of a Shinobi's Fire_ by _ippus67_. It's got great structure, a lot of cool fight scenes and an incredible sense of depth and mystery. If you're in the market, I'd check it out asap.

And when you're done with that...

(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)

"Naruto," Sakura said, arms crossed, one eyebrow cocked, "how exactly did this happen?"

The blond haired boy stood before her, oozing syrup onto the entryway to her parents home. He reached up and tried to rub the back of his head, but his fingers got tangled in his hair. He'd let it grow out since the end of the war, it was almost as long has his father's was.

"Well, I met Izumo and Kotetsu at the Jounin lounge and we were talking - but long version short we had this bet and you know how they can be - and ... you don't want to know the details."

"No. _Please._ Explain."

"Aw, come on, Sakura-chan! I just need to borrow your bathroom!"

"No way! Go to a bathhouse!"

"But they wouldn't let me in."

"Go jump in a lake then." Sakura reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, her forehead tight with exasperated affection. Naruto said something, but it sounded muffled and she wondered with amusement if he had tried to start licking the sappy mess clean. It would be just like him.

But that wasn't the case as she opened her eyes.

Naruto was blurred, a faceless, voiceless monster.

He spoke at her, a dark hole gaping in the swirling void where his face had been. There was a faraway sound, like she was hearing him after an explosion. A high tone rang through her head. The summer air began to grow hotter, suddenly stifling where it had once been balmy.

Sakura stepped back into her home. The walls were sagging around her, as if gravity was breaking apart every molecule and dragging the world downwards.

"What's happening?!"

The smudged figure that had been Naruto stepped in after her and reached out with indistinct limbs, the mockery of hands catching her by the throat. He said something again and again as he pushed her up against the disintegrating wall. Her family portrait melted into obscurity beside her head.

"..._hgggiiiihhh...hgggiiiihh...hgggiiiih_!" The not-Naruto roared in her face. She could feel his breath, freezing in comparison to the world.

He was killing her. She was going to die. She couldn't breath.

"..._hgggiiihhh...hgggiiihhh_..." She struggled in vain, lashing out with her feet and, scratching with her hands. Every blow she dealt felt like it was landing in clay.

Not-Naruto went silent as he slid her down to the floor, straddled her chest and squeezed both hands around her throat almost as hard as he could. The smeared face leaned down to her ear.

"...die, die, die..."

He leaned all his weight on her and Sakura could hear her collarbones and spine splintering, feel the moment of hesitation as her throat reached it's point of breaking and began to collapse.

She tried to breath in and choked -

- on a plastic tube that was being removed. The hard end brushed across her tongue and Sakura gagged and turned her head, heaving dryly over the edge of a bed.

"_Maklik nou, maklik meisie_."

..._What?_

"_Hi daar . Hou net kalm . Weet jy waar jy is_?"

..._What?_

A light swung from side to side above Sakura's head, clearing away the darkness. She struggled to regain a footing in reality. Terror swept across her skin, leaving behind a cold sweat and goosebumps. Consciousness had brought along a new awareness of pain. Sakura felt sluggish with painkillers, but her entire body still ached bitterly.

She groaned, fighting to control her eyes as she tried to straighten from her twisted hunch. Her ribs heartily protested the movement. She groaned again.

"_Dit is die beste as jy nog steeds bly_." The light, which Sakura noted was actually a pen light, swept across her vision once more then two hands came to rest on her shoulders and eased her back. Sakura surrendered herself to the cot, exhaling harshly as her roaming eyes focused onto the owner of the pen light.

It was a man, twice her age. Tall and on the thin side, dark skinned. The linen, flower printed shirt he wore hung off him where it didn't stick from patches of sweat.

"_Kan jy my verstaan_?" He asked, or she assumed he asked, it sounded like a question, despite it being gibberish.

"Do you speak English?" He asked and Sakura's mind raced.

The language wasn't called English to her, but she understood the tongue of Western folk well enough to answer him.

"Yes." Her voice croaked like an old woman's. The man moved to her side and fiddled with a bag of saline that was attached to her arm through a thin needle. Her mouth filled with the taste of foreign metal. The man nodded to himself as he sat back onto a stool beside her bed and retrieved a clipboard that had been sitting on a small bedside table.

"Do you know where you are?" He asked.

"...building of doctors?" Sakura guessed, taking in the room, unable to find better words. The ward she was in was one long shelter, coated roughly with flaking white paint. Dozens of cots were lined up against the walls, filled with patients that doctors and nurses were talking to and treating.

Sakura had never seen so many people with dark skin in her life. She wondered if she was in a Kumogakure medical center.

"Yes. You were brought in last night." The man looked down at her with professionally distant sympathy, "You've been injured."

Sakura flicked her eyes down to her arms. Both of them were swaddled in crisp white bandages. She could feel the bulk of more gauze strapped around her torso, could feel the throbbing wound - that little souvenir from Sasori.

_I thought I was dead...I thought I used too much life force. Why didn't they heal me already?_

She summoned chakra and cringed at the weak response. Still, it was there and for that she had to be thankful. She cycled through an inventory of her injuries while gently working chakra towards the worst part of her gut wound. The sensation was of burning as new cells burst into existence within her.

The care she had received so far was barely field first aid, Sakura was appalled at the lack of any real treatment, it was a miracle she was alive. Kumogakure jurisdiction or not, she was going to ball out whatever medic was botching up this operation. If she was this bad she could hardly imagine what the other's were receiving.

"You were attacked by a man. We found him with you. Do you remember?"

Sakura startled.

Man? Obito Uchiha. Is he alive too? I thought for sure...

"Do not worry." The doctor reached out and held her hand warmly, "We have kept him locked up in another building. He will not hurt you anymore."

"...Hurt?" she murmured

"The... authorities want to speak with you. They have been waiting until you were well enough to speak. I would like to get some basic information before they talk to you though."

"I..." Sakura scowled at the man. This whole situation seemed ridiculous in her opinion but she knew the magic name to cut through bullshit, " Where is Tsunade?"

"Is that who he is?"

"What?"

"Is Tsunade the man who attacked you?"

"No, he didn't." Sakura's forehead creased. "He's not Tsunade."

"What is your name?"

"...Sakura Haruno." Her name, she had thought, was well known, but this man showed no recognition as he questioned her about the spelling, which she wasn't able to help him with. He wrote her name across a form as best as he could.

"Where are you from?"

"I'm from - " a scream raked across her ears, coming from the other end of the ward. The doctor stood up, setting her chart aside. He left without another word to go help whatever ailing creature needed his attention. Sakura flinched from the noise.

_What self respecting ninja would make such a racket? It's probably one of those Samurai - though really with this sort of medical care I can almost understand. I need to get out of here and send a message to Tsunade. I can't believe I've been misplaced like this!_

Sakura shifted under her sheets, pulling her legs free. She turned slowly while sitting up until she hunched over the side of the bed once more, legs swinging. She felt ready to topple. Her right arm was mostly numb, the skin pulled tight from where the acid had burned her. Scowling angrily, Sakura scooted forward and rocked onto her feet. The floor was cement, cool to the touch, a sharp contrast against the muggy air.

She was dressed in a loose cotton gown, that gaped open at her side, baring bandages and skin. She knotted it off roughly and hope it held, though honestly, modesty was pretty far down her list at the moment. Sakura limped weakly towards the nearest door out of the ward. It lead directly outside into a weed filled yard. Other buildings sat in the distance, marked in a language she couldn't understand.

_Where's the communications site? Which one is it?_

She looked up searching for messenger hawks that might be coming or going. There was nothing though, just a empty blue sky yawning before her.

"You're awake then - where do you think your going?" Sakura whipped around to face a slight woman, pale skinned with familiarly arched features, all of which maintained a blank, unimpressed expression.

Sakura leaned against the door frame, fingers clutching the jamb. The woman wore a dark jumpsuit that immediately made Sakura think 'uniform'. She had holsters on her hips and thighs. No blades, though. Sakura assessed, just strangely shaped chunks of black metal and plastic.

"I ... the doctor told me to walk. For... circulation." Sakura explained, smiling benignly.

"That would be strange, as I gave him specific directives not to let you leave the ward or his sight after he woke you up."

Sakura shifted just a little, pressing up onto the balls of her feet.

_She's a threat._

"Who are you?" Sakura asked.

"Agent May. I was sent to collect you and your friend and bring you under S.H.I.E.L.D's custody."

"...and if I choose to be... not collected?"

"We already have your friend."

Sakura flinched and pursed her mouth.

"The doctors here think that he's the one that injured you. But you know what I think? I think he's your partner." Agent May shifted into one hip, a hand propped on her side, "I think he was trying to protect you when you came here with that rock"

"Rock?" Sakura said warily.

Agent May turned a little and jerked her thumb over her shoulder. Sakura glanced over and blinked rapidly at what she saw. In the far distance beyond rooftops and towards the dark edge of a forest, there was a mountain sitting like a stain against the horizon. A mountain made of curdled red stone.

Sakura's guts curled viciously within her and she felt all the warmth in the world seeping from her body.

_...the portal..._

Promptly she threw up onto the stone walkway, bones protesting the movement, throat burning. She didn't manage to miss her feet.

Agent May looked on without sympathy or reaction. She studied her the way Sakura used to study dead fish.

"I think it's time you came along. There are some questions that need to be answered."

"No..." Sakura pulled herself up with the help of the doorway.

_Nobody recognizes me. These people have only rudimentary medical capabilities. This isn't Konohagakure. This isn't Kumogakure. This isn't home at all._

"It's best if you don't resist. For your own sake." The woman raised her hand into the air and flicked two fingers. Sakura heard the sound of shoes behind her. Heavy boots, and a rhythmic metallic clicking.

Sakura turned and saw two men approaching down the ward at a threatening pace. They wore uniforms of thicker material than Agent May's and padded vests as well. They carried heavy metal machines in their arms, similar to the things Agent May carried in her holsters, but larger, longer, thicker. Sakura thought that the machines looked vaguely familiar to rifles, but not made of wood and missing the contraption that ignited the force to throw a projectile.

Patients and medical workers scattered like cockroaches, eager to be out of the men's wake.

Agent May stepped forward and two other uniformed men jogged over to flank her side.

Sakura did not like this. She did not like any of this. The hair on the back of her neck prickled as her shoulder blades arched up like hackles.

She raised her foot subtly and then without fanfare slammed her heel into the concrete. Hard. The floor made a wrenching sound as it was violently torn asunder. A rough seam shot down the length of the long room, gaping with rebar teeth and churning stones.

The men, other agents of the organization that woman belonged to Sakura deduced, threw themselves aside to avoid the destruction, only barely managing to escape.

People screamed and scrambled blindly through the dust that filled the air. They spilled from the exits, some jumping through the windows to get away. Sakura darted into the cloud, using it as cover, using the people as a distraction.

She pushed passed a nurse huddled around a young boy. The nurse screamed when she saw her and Sakura heard a terrible cracking noise and felt something small and hard whistle past her ear. Throwing herself to the ground painfully, Sakura crawled beneath the nearest bed. There was more popping, and short bursts of light that flared from within the chaos.

"Stop it! Hold your fire! You'll hit civilians!" Agent May's voice was doubled. Sakura could hear her shouting from outside and she could hear the voice coming from a little radio speaker. A speaker that wasn't more than a yard away.

Reaching out, Sakura wrapped her hand around an ankle and pulled. The man fell forward, catching his chin on the floor, stunned briefly. Sakura crawled over his back and without giving him a chance to struggle she slammed a knuckle into his temple. He slumped bonelessly without another noise.

_One down and...how many are left?_

Fingers wrapped in her hair, tightened cruelly, and pulled so hard that she was dragged off the man she had taken down. Sakura writhed, reaching up behind her to claw at her assailant, but her nails only dug into protective gloves and a thick sleeve.

"I got her! I got her!" He was shouting .

Her hands fell as he dragged her from the building, back into the open. He had a knife tucked into his boot. She gripped the hilt, pulled it free, and savagely stabbed him in the back of the knee three times in quick succession.

"_Son of a bitch_!"

He screamed and released her, staggering to the ground. Sakura shifted around to his back and jammed the knife up against his throat just as Agent May and her two other men aimed their strange weapons at her. The man in her arms was groaning and in the distance she could hear the civilian's panicking. Besides that there was silence, emptiness. An impasse.

"It doesn't have to be this way," Agent May said. "Give yourself up."

"No."

Agent May's mouth turned sour. She lowered her weapon, turned and stalked away. Sakura looked warily after her, clutching the whimpering man tighter.

Agent May said something into a radio that rested in her ear. This time it was not broadcast over the other radio's as well. She spoke again, waited, and spoke once more. Then she turned and strode back, stowing her weapon away.

"I told you before." Agent May said.

"Told me what?" Sakura asked.

"I have a man with your friend right now. I will not hesitate to put a bullet in his brain if you don't surrender and comply. I will not have you endanger anymore lives today."

_Obito. Damn it._

"What if you are wrong?" Sakura said, "What if he is not my friend. What if he is...civilian. Or my enemy. Why should I care? I could kill this man here too."

"I'm willing to bet."

"You said you did not want to endanger any lives. If I did care, how do I know you do have that man anyways?"

"I'm willing to bet," Agent May repeated, her voice like ice, "and I'm done negotiating."

She reached up to press the button on her radio.

_No. No. No. I need him. I can't let them kill him!_

"Code 4, you have a go -"

_I have to stop her. If I throw the knife I can take out the nearest one. I can't run to her fast enough. I wouldn't make it. By the time I got there Obito would be -_

"_Yamete__!_" Sakura shouted in her native tongue, and then in the Western language, "wait, please!"

"...Hold your fire. Code 4 canceled."

Sakura scooted back from her hostage and raised her hands slowly, dropping the knife to the ground with a thump. She shuffled onto her knees and locked her fingers behind her head. Agent May and her teammates approached weapons still aimed and ready.

"Bring the SBX-90 cuffs," Agent may said into her radio. "Put a pair of the other one too, for caution's sake."

Sakura glared at the ground mutely, trying to wrangle back a helpless rage that filled her chest.

A moment later a woman jogged up, clad in similar riot gear. She handed off a heavy pair of shackles. Agent May did the honors.

Sakura couldn't see her hands behind her back, but she could feel the restraints tighten snugly around her wrists by themselves, humming with some sort of energy. She tested them, pulling gently and received a blood curdling jolt of energy that zinged up and down her arms and made her jaw ache.

"I'd recommend not doing that again. It gets worse each time you try it."

Sakura slumped forward, the manacles the only thing keeping her from falling face first into the dirt.

"Load her up. We're returning to base." Agent May said, stepping around Sakura's body. "ETD in twenty."

Sakura choked on wretched sounding sobs. She'd bitten her tongue during the shock and blood and spit drooled through her stained teeth to dot the ground. She felt herself crying, a physical reaction to the spike of energy more than anything else. The energy seemed to bounce between her nerves, jangling everything so badly that she couldn't stop shaking.

"Looks like the cuffs work pretty well, huh?" One of the men said, gripping her forearms and dragging Sakura to her feet.

"Stark'll be happy to hear it." Another man muttered, prodding Sakura's side with the long end of his weapon, "not that he needs the ego boost."

They took her to a squatting machine with a massive propeller attached to it's top, and chained her to a chair. Agent May hadn't been bluffing. Obito was strapped onto a gurney on the floor at Sakura's feet, wearing matching cuffs, unconscious to the new world. She almost envied him.

They loaded on the man she had knocked out and across the aisle from her the man she had stabbed fell into a seat. His leg was wrapped with rudimentary bandages. He glared at her.

"They're gonna cut you up when we get to base." He whispered, his voice low and ugly, "They'll split your chest open and dig out your heart."

Sakura spat a mouthful of blood at him.

"_You little bitch!_" He lunged up unsteadily but didn't make it far.

"That's enough." Agent May was there, one of her uniformed associates holding the man back, "Move him to the front."

She turned her cool gaze back onto Sakura, "I would stop causing so much trouble, if I were you."

Sakura said nothing.

"For your friends sake, then." Agent May walked away, down the narrow aisle.

Sakura looked down onto Obito's face and glowered. His eyes had been wrapped with gauze, probably because they thought something was wrong with them. Sakura remembered the trails of blood from before, a side effect from usage. She prayed that he had turned off his bloodline abilities. She didn't want to know what these people would do with that sort of power if they found it.

_They're gonna cut you up..._

Sakura sunk back into her seat as much as her bowed arms would allow.

_Let them try, I'll tear them apart first._

As far as she had seen, these people lacked true power, none of them had used any shinobi arts during their scuffle. All they had was their strange weapons and rudimentary threats. Once Obito was able to fight there would be nothing standing in the way of escape.

Her seat began to shake violently and Sakura shifted to stare out a small circular window as the machine began to roar and lift into the air. This heavy hunk of metal was flying. _Flying._

The red mountain grew as they passed by and then shrank behind them.

_Strange weapons, rudimentary threats, and unknown levels of technological advances._

Sakura looked back to Obito as the new world scrolled by beneath her.

_Wake up._

_Wake up._

_Please, wake up._


End file.
